Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa (GroFutures) will develop the scientific evidence and inclusive groundwater management processes by which groundwater resources can be used sustainably for poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It will improve understanding of the volume and renewability of groundwater in SSA, and develop robust models and tools to forecast available groundwater resources under changing climate, land-use and demand scenarios, including expansion of arable land under irrigation. GroFutures will examine current groundwater governance processes and identify pathways toward more sustainable and equitable use of groundwater resources that are reconciled to projections of changing demand and resource availability. It will assemble an international consortium of scientists with an unmatched track record of groundwater research and stakeholder engagement in SSA that both leverages substantial additional investment (£461,000) and engages with research and development communities across Anglophone and Francophone Africa. GroFutures will also establish a Network of African Groundwater Observatories that representing the primary groundwater environments and development governance challenges in SSA that features a new dataset of 25 records of groundwater-level observations that are 2 to 6 decades duration from across SSA enabling the most rigorous analysis of the relationships among climate, land-use and groundwater recharge that has ever been conducted in the tropics. Dedicated basin observatories will be constructed that will enable very detailed monitoring of the physical process by which groundwater is replenished and application of a new method for quantifying the volume of groundwater in African aquifers thereby overcoming fundamental limitations in present knowledge of groundwater in SSA. GroFutures will also employ an innovative and participatory approach to the management of groundwater which will enable for explicit consideration ofthe views of poor people in making decisions over the allocation and development of groundwater resources.

Planned Impact

GroFutures will benefit: (1) poor water users (women and men, rural and urban) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through increased knowledge and evidence of sustainable groundwater use to alleviate poverty through improved resource management and enhanced health and livelihoods; (2) water planners and policy makers in SSA through the development of new evidence and methodologies to enable equitable and sustainable management of groundwater resources; and (3) research communities in SSA and beyond through creating improved new tools, methods and datasets for interdisciplinary analysis of groundwater resources and their management, as well as scholarly information exchanges and networking activities that will strengthen a growing Community of Practice involving Anglophone and Francophone scientists.

The primary pathway by which GroFutures will generate impacts for poor people is through the development of new evidence and tools which water managers in the focal countries and across SSA can use to: (1) target groundwater development where it can most effectively reduce poverty; and (2) ensure equitable and sustainable development of groundwater resources.

GroFutures will contribute to unlocking the poverty-reducing potential of groundwater in SSA by:1) Establishing a unique Network of African Groundwater Observatories (NAGO) that will generate new evidence on groundwater availability and demand, including insights into how these are likely to change over the next two to three decades giving planners at basin, national and regional levels the information they need to plan for an equitable and sustainable allocation of groundwater for multiple users and uses;2) Identifying locations in which groundwater development (for domestic supply or irrigation) is a technically appropriate and politically feasible strategy to reduce poverty;3) Identifying locations at risk of future depletion due to likely demand/supply imbalances enabling appropriate management responses to be developed on a preventive rather than curative basis;4) Providing specific information on variations in groundwater availability and demand which can carry high costs for economies and for the livelihoods of poor people and make planning and management difficult;5) Strengthening the capacity of water planners, researchers and their institutions through the co-production of knowledge and collaborative, demand-led research and stakeholder engagement;6) Identifying governance arrangements for pro-poor, sustainable groundwater management, in collaboration with water managers and other key stakeholders; and7) Disseminating new evidence and knowledge on the positive outcomes of groundwater development for health and livelihoods enabling poverty alleviation.

The GroFutures team will engage staff of national, regional and local water bureaux in Ethiopia, Niger and Tanzania, as well as basin authorities (Great Ruaha, Niger) as project partners from the start in the research planning, data analysis and tool/metric development and piloting. They will also embed new scientific knowledge, models and methods for managing groundwater for poverty alleviation within water ministries to inform decision-making and initiate discussions about equity in groundwater development among relevant stakeholders.

Production and dissemination of high quality, open-source publications - in the form of academic outputs in high impact journals, as well as targeted policy briefs and other bespoke communications materials suited to different audiences - will be a central aim of the project. These will involve all members of the team and will be published in English, as well as French, Amharic, Hausa and Kiswahili, where appropriate. All materials and information will be accessible via a dedicated, bilingual website (grofutures.org) that is linked to institutional websites of the project team (AAU, BGS, IDS-STEPS, IGRAC, IRD, IWMI, SUA, UAM, UCL, UoS) and the UPGro Knowledge Broker.

GroFutures co-PI and co-lead in the Iullemmeden Basin in Niger, Professor Yahaya Nazoumou is a key adviser for the Niger Strategic Program on Climate Resilience. Under GroFutures, Professor Nazoumou is working towards achieving groundwater-based resilience to climate change

Banking the Rain: enhancing the resilience of water supplies in dryland Africa

Amount

£92,000 (GBP)

Funding ID

172313

Organisation

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Sector

Academic/University

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland (UK)

Start

08/2016

End

03/2017

Title

The Chronicles Consortium

Description

The Chronicles Consortium has collated and analysed multi-decadal records of groundwater levels from 9 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to assess the impacts of groundwater use, climate variability and change, and land-use change on groundwater storage across Africa.

Type Of Material

Database/Collection of data

Provided To Others?

No

Impact

The development of this research database is allowing, for the first time, a continent-wide analysis of the impacts of groundwater use, climate variability and change, and land-use change on groundwater storage across Africa.

GroFutures research team members, Karen Villholth and Tamiru Abiye, have developed this partnership funded by USAID and involving the US Geological Survey allied to GroFutures research in the Limpopo Basin of South Africa.

Collaborator Contribution

The GRECHLIM Project collaborate with the following main partners: Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), South Africa, Department of Water Affairs (DWA), Botswana, Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM), Water Research Commission (WRC), South Africa, Southern African Development Community (SADC), and University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Impact

The project has so far supported field work for three MSc students from the University of Witwatersrand. Two of these students have submitted their theses for examination at the end of February 2017, while the third student has started field work in March 2017. We are expecting more MSc students to join the project team during the course of the year.
Furthermore, the project also provided training for PhD and MSc student from both South Africa and Botswana on groundwater recharge estimation techniques on 11-12 October 2016 at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Groundwater model for Dendron/ Hout catchment has been developed to understand the groundwater use and recharge dynamics. Furthermore, independent groundwater recharge estimation using geochemical and stable isotope techniques is in progress. Therefore, we believe that these information could contribute for the development of better groundwater management plan in the basin.

Start Year

2015

Description

GroFutures: Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa

Organisation

Addis Ababa University

Country

Ethiopia, Federal Democratic Republic of

Sector

Academic/University

PI Contribution

NERC/ESRC/DFID Grants (Ref. NE/L002043/1; NE/M008932/1), GroFutures: Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been awarded as a result of a consortium developed under the project.

Collaborator Contribution

Partners contributed to the development of the successful NERC/ESRC/DFID Catalyst and Programme Grant Proposals.

Impact

NERC/ESRC/DFID Grants (Ref. NE/L002043/1; NE/M008932/1), GroFutures: Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been awarded as a result of a consortium developed under the project.

Start Year

2013

Description

GroFutures: Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa

Organisation

Sokoine University of Agriculture

Country

Tanzania, United Republic of

Sector

Academic/University

PI Contribution

NERC/ESRC/DFID Grants (Ref. NE/L002043/1; NE/M008932/1), GroFutures: Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been awarded as a result of a consortium developed under the project.

Collaborator Contribution

Partners contributed to the development of the successful NERC/ESRC/DFID Catalyst and Programme Grant Proposals.

Impact

NERC/ESRC/DFID Grants (Ref. NE/L002043/1; NE/M008932/1), GroFutures: Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been awarded as a result of a consortium developed under the project.

Start Year

2013

Description

The Chronicles Consortium

Organisation

Institute of Development Research (IRD)

Country

France, French Republic

Sector

Public

PI Contribution

The Chronicles Consortium is an international consortium of scientists from (currently) 12 countries across Africa and beyond collating and analysing multi-decadal records of groundwater levels, representing long-term aquifer dynamics, in order to assess the impacts of groundwater use, climate variability and change, and land-use change on groundwater storage across Africa. It is a joint initiative of the African Groundwater Network (AGW-Net), IAH Commission on Groundwater and Climate Change, and UNESCO-IHP GRAPHIC programme that is supported by the UPGro (Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor) programme of the UK government (DFID, NERC, ESRC) and the French government (IRD).

Collaborator Contribution

The consortium was established at the 41st Congress of the IAH (International Association of Hydrogeologists) in Marrakech, Morocco on 14 September 2014 and is led by Tamiru Abiye (Wits University, South Africa), Guillaume Favreau (IRD, France), and Richard Taylor (University College London, UK).

Impact

Collation and analysis of multi-decadal groundwater-level records from 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa; special sessions at the 41st, 42nd and 43rd Congresses of the IAH; a training and knowledge co-production workshop (http://grofutures.org/article/pan-african-groundwater-level-analysis-and-training-workshop/) leading to high-profile reseacrh papers and special section of a international peer-reviewed journal, HydrogeolgyJournal (https://www.un-igrac.org/news/call-papers-special-issue-hydrogeology-journal).

Start Year

2014

Description

UPGro Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and British Geological Survey (BGS) Collaboration

Organisation

British Geological Survey

Department

Geomagnetism Group

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland (UK)

Sector

Public

PI Contribution

New partnership between the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), which is a co-PI on Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa (GroFutures) has formed to provide key social science elements to the further development of the African Groundwater Atlas (https://upgro.org/africa-groundwater-atlas/), with support from NERC-ESRC-DFID through the 'Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor' (UPGro) programme. GroFutures will provide key social science information to this newly established collaboration.

Collaborator Contribution

British Geological Survey (BGS) has already developed the African Groundwater Atlas that is publicly available (https://www.bgs.ac.uk/africagroundwateratlas/) and provides a summary of geological and hydrogeological environments of 51 African countries in Africa. The newly established collaboration will further enrich the African Groundwater Atlas by including critical social science elements for sustainable groundwater development in Sub-Saharan Africa

GroFutures Iullemmeden Basin Stakeholder Workshop was held at Abdou Moumouni University (UAM) of Niamey in Niger on 23rd August 2016. The workshop was opened by the Vice Chancellor, Hon. Professor Amadou Boureima, and welcomed by the Director General of Water Resources in the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation of Niger, Mr. Abdou Moumouni Moussa; Engineer Koné Soungalo representing the Niger Basin Authority; Dr. Oumarou Malam Issa, Country Representative of IRD in Niger; and the Deans of Faculties of Sciences and Agronomy (UAM). The workshop was hosted by the GroFutures team from UAM (Professor Yahaya Nazoumou, Dr. Ouassa Tiekoura), the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria (Professor Ibrahim Baba Goni, Dr. Shettima Abba Gana), and IRD (Dr. Guillaume Favreau). Over 40 participants participated and included representatives from agricultural cooperatives (Coopérative périmètre irrigué in Maradi, Coopérative agricole in Gaya), regional (Maradi, Dosso) and national offices of the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation, and local universities (Mardi, Diffa).

Some 25 social and physical scientists from 12 participating organisations in 11 different countries met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to kick-off the GroFutures project. The GroFutures team began the workshop with a field trip to the Upper Awash Basin to assess changing patterns of groundwater management and use. Team members then worked together to review integrated physical and social science research plans in the 3 focal 'Basin Observatories' comprising the Upper Awash (Ethiopia), Great Ruaha (Tanzania), and Iullemmeden (Niger/Nigeria).

Sokoine University of Agriculture of Tanzania hosted the GroFutures Great Ruaha Basin Inception Workshop in Iringa on March 31st 2016. It was opened by the District Commissioner for Iringa, Hon. Richard Kasesela, and was attended by national, basin-level and local stakeholders (listed below) who discussed current groundwater use and management in the Great Ruaha Sub-Catchment of the Rufiji Basin and as well as both proposed and potential groundwater development pathways that might best reduce poverty. The event was featured on national television news in Tanzania (see clip here) and leading newspapers (The Guardian, Mwananchi).

GroFutures Ethiopian team led by Prof. Tenalem Ayenew hosted an inception workshop held at Addis Ababa on July 9, 2016. The workshop was attended by national and local level stakeholders from ministries (Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources) zonal and wereda-level water, mineral, agriculture offices, Awash River basin and oromia irrigation development authorities, and zonal and wereda level administrations. Richard Taylor, lead principal investigator of the groundwater futures project, opened the workshop pointing out the importance of understanding and managing the available groundwater for drinking and especially, sustainable irrigated agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. He added, grofutures project is seeking to improve the understanding and management of groundwater resources under the changing climate and development practices through answering questions regarding how much groundwater is available, how much water is accessible and how much is renewable. He also demonstrates, how important it would be to understand the tradeoffs and opportunities of intensive groundwater use and to answer critical questions including what role do the irrigation officers and local farmers get in the discussion of future groundwater development and use. He wrapped up the opening of the workshop by stating that grofutures is about knowledge generation to substantially improve understanding of replenishment of the groundwater resource and how it behaves in the future as a function of climate change, change in land use land cover and trends of groundwater use. A number of discussion points both from the physical science grofutures team (Prof. Tenalem and Ato Behailu) and social science team (John Thompson, Moutuma and Birhanu) were presented and thoroughly discussed by the participants. The physical science team presented the physical environment of Upper Awash basin with particular emphasis to Becho and Koka plane, which are focal areas of the grofutures research in the Upper Awash basin. Methodology of groundwater assessment, data availability, preliminary results and next work plan have been presented. Water quality assessment, within the context of the grofutures objective were raised to be incorporated by the participants. Besides, wereda level field survey on population growth, population density, irrigation area, land use and land cover, types, characteristics and ownership of shallow wells and water extraction technologies were presented by the social science team. After important reflections which will enrich the theme of the project were gathered from the participants, Prof. John Thompson, lead investigator of the social component of the groundwater futures project, concluded aspect of the social presentation by emphasizing the importance of identifying groundwater development pathways in the course of grofutures research period, which enable us move from narrow set of 'groundwater roads' to a wider set of possible groundwater futures that are more proper, sustainable and bring about large scale benefits to poverty reduction and improvements in wellbeing. Group discussions on two key points: 1. the key opportunities (physical, socioeconomic and political) and threats to improving GW management in Upper Awash basin for alleviating poverty and improving livelihoods and 2. the current and projected uses of groundwater for agricultural water supplies (e.g. crops, livestock's) created a ground to exchange ideas among stake holders. Important thinking and finding generated from the group discussions were presented for the attendants.Finally, as the nature of the project is multidisciplinary integrating social and natural science, the need to have a platform for the different stakeholders to exchange information were raised. The grofutures team and leaders of the project thank the participants for their insight during the discussions and willingness to cooperate in the future.

The UPGro programme, supported by AfriWatSan & ESPRC, conducted a pan-African capacity-strengthening and knowledge co-production workshop at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania from the 10th to 12th of February, 2017. 40 participants from 12 countries in Africa took part and analysed multi-decadal, groundwater-level data ("chronicles") from 9 countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, Sénégal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Participants comprised PhD students and more experienced researchers (mentors & supervisors) as well as representatives from government ministries and the private sector, and included team members from all 5 UPGro consortium projects GroFutures, BRAVE, Hidden Crisis, GroForGood, and T-Group. Training focused on the application of the water table fluctuation method for analysing groundwater-level records and was led by GroFutures and The Chronicles Consortium, an international consortium of scientists from across Africa and beyond collating and analysing multi-decadal records of groundwater levels in order to assess the impacts of groundwater use, climate variability and change, and land-use change on groundwater storage across Africa. In addition to addressing key capacity-strengthening goals, the workshop provided a platform for the co-production of knowledge. As a result, a collaborative, pan-African analysis of multi-decadal groundwater-level records is in preparation and a number of participants is expected to contribute their national-scale analyses to an upcoming special section of Hydrogeology Journal.